Exalted 2.5 hack

Exalted 2nd edition is a fun RPG, but crunchy. The complexity of the rules mean there's never going to be any such thing as a pickup game of Exalted unless you're willing to play one of the many adaptations out there. Here's mine.

It's based on Cthulhu Dark's roll-keep-highest system, intended only for playing Solar Exalted and makes no effort to cover sorcery. (In all the time I spent thinking about it, I never came up with a solution I liked better than the one from Daiklaive Qwixalted. That's what I've used in play.)

As a teaser, here's a set of example artefacts I wrote up to demonstrate that not every magitech item you're packing has to be another eight-foot sword:

Mountain Rises, Mountain Falls

"The Exalt and the Demon fell from Heaven, cursing and clawing at each other as they tumbled. Their impact on Creation left a crater as deep as a tall man's length. Swords broken, armour cracked, drained of essence, they glared hatred at each other as they lay exhausted. 

"Long Stride gained his feet first. Having no other weapon to hand, he raised a torso-sized rock over his head and bludgeoned the Demon with it."

Mountain Rises, Mountain Falls is a warhammer made of rough-hewn stone banded and capped with orihalcum and fixed to a five-foot haft. Too heavy for an ordinary man to lift, never mind wield in battle, a blow from this hammer could fell a mammoth.

When spending a mote and striking the ground during battle, opponents must succeed in a roll vs character's essence die/2 or be knocked prone, stepping their side's combat dice down by one step for a turn

Lamentation

"The beast called Sorrow rode down the mountainside. It was atop a pile of tumbling, rolling skulls, laughing as it came. The Excellent Harp recognised her husband's skull by the jewels set in its forehead. She was too late.

"As it raised its bow to end her life and collect her skull, she spoke to it of the affection they had shared. The slow, halting blossom of love. And the enduring oneness it had ended with a single act of savagery. Ten minutes later, with her ready assistance, it hanged itself with its own bowstring." 

Lamentation is a bow formed from the ivory of some unknown beast, decorated with rings, ribbons, and scraps of silken veils. The beast Sorrow preferred to kill married men and women, and decorated its weapon with their scavenged love tokens. It has been restrung with a single strand of orihalcum wire.

When spending a mote and shaking the bow so it jingles, all opposing combatants who have a lover on the battlefield must succeed in a roll vs character's essence die/2 or be frozen in horror for a turn, stepping their side's combat dice down by one step.

Whisper

"When Sanshu left his lover's arms he stole away every trace of his presence. Even the smell of the flowers he brought her. Still, her husband the Magistrate felt that something was wrong. Sanshu was known to take strands of women's hair as souvenirs. The Magistrate counted every hair on his wife's head. Then he was satisfied she was faithful. 

"It was years later he realised the strand of her hair he kept in a locket around his neck was gone." 

Whisper is a rope woven from orihalcum wire, silk fibres, pattern spider cobweb and women's hair. It's light, durable, and seems to know its master's desires.

This rope is very nearly unbreakable, and when spending a mote and tying a knot in it, suppresses any noise its master makes.

Library bestiary part 1 - human

For nearly a year I've been thinking about an adventure set in a cursed library. It's giving me some trouble, mainly the map. I'd like to site the main areas deliberately, and use a simple semi-procedural generation for smaller rooms. The details haven't been gelling and I had mostly put it out of my mind, but a week ago I woke up from a dream with the perfect solution - which I didn't write down and had forgotten by morning. Something about a die-drop table? Maybe? I'm still kicking myself over that.

In any case, it's reached the point where I need to write it down in order to either progress my ideas or get them out of my head completely. I don't have a map, but I have a bestiary.

The library was created to house a singular book, the Book of Ashes. It has a wealth of knowledge on a variety of forbidden subjects, including descriptions and true names of a number of high-ranking demons. You don't let people read a book like that, but you don't burn it either. It might be useful some day. So they put it in an isolated building with a staff of scholar-soldiers to protect it. Over time, other heretical but potentially useful books joined it. Then, because it's the nature of libraries, a collection of mundane but associated volumes useful to visiting researchers.

Maybe because of the nature of its collection, the library grew strange and dark over time. The librarians became insular and uncooperative with visitors. Eventually they stopped leaving the library altogether. The building itself grew larger than its walls should allow, and its corridors twisted into a maze.

The library still operates and protects its evil books, but it's a hazardous place to visit.

Librarian castes

Shelvers

Shelvers climb the library shelves like monkeys, deftly reaching for finger- and toe-holds, always careful not to brush against the books. Theirs is the sacred task of returning books to their proper places after they've been repaired, seized from a rival tribe that follows a heretical cataloguing System or (Great Librarian protect us!) read.

AC 8 [11], HD 2 (9 HP), Att 1 × wooden club (1d6) or bone knife (1d4), THAC0 19, MV 120’ (40’), SV D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (F2), ML 8, AL Lawful, XP 20, NA 1d6 (3d4), TT P

• Ambush: May set simple traps or push shelves over onto opponents.
• Bombard: May drop heavy items on opponents from high spots.

Returners

Returners are the police force of the librarian tribes. Their job is to apprehend criminals accused of mishandling books, folding pages, or the greatest crime of all - book murder. They go armed with man-catchers. The only punishment is hanging. Executed criminals will be displayed in the entrance hall for a few days, then taken down and expertly butchered so their skin can be turned into leather, their bones into needles and their sinews into thread for repairing books. Returners from rival tribes have a wary truce during times of peace and co-operate to bring book vandals to justice.

They wrap heavy cloth around their faces to muffle their cries if injured in battle. Hushers execute noise-makers indiscriminately.

AC 6 [13], HD 3 (14 HP), Att 1 × man-catcher (1d2 + restrain) or sharpened ruler (1d6), THAC0 19, MV 120’ (40’), SV D2 W13 P14 B15 S16 (F3), ML 8, AL Lawful, XP 35, NA 1d6 (3d4), TT Q

• Capture: Standard tactic is for several Returners to immobilise and gag an opponent so their body can be used for book repair.
  

Porters

Some books are so important than ordinary visitors can't be trusted to handle them. Porters wear harnesses which let them carry a book of any size on their backs, and act as a lectern when needed. They wear blinkers to keep them from accidentally reading their books, and use whisk-like devices over their shoulders to turn pages. If there's danger, they're trained to retreat immediately, shielding their book with their bodies. Porters are always accompanied by two Returners.

AC 3 [16], HD 2 (7 HP), Att 1 × turner (1d4), THAC0 19, MV 120’ (40’), SV D11 W12 P14 B16 S15 (C2), ML 6, AL Lawful, XP 31, NA 1d6 (3d4), TT O

• Retreat: If threatened, back towards the nearest entrance, fighting defensively. 
• Distract: Drop lesser books or scrolls to delay opponents if necessary.
• Magic: a porter will know 1d2 of:
  • Cause Fear
  • Darkness
  • Detect Magic

Lectors

A book is an ideal object (of course), but if you were to (carefully and hypothetically) admit a limitation in their function as information transmitters, it would be that only one person can read them at a time. Having someone read them aloud fixes that problem. The library's altered nature means that Lectors are most often reading to empty lecture halls, but they do it anyway. Tradition is what maintains their privileged position among the tribe.

AC 7 [12], HD 2 (5 HP), Att 1 × wooden bookmark (1d4), THAC0 19, MV 120’ (40’), SV D13 W14 P13 B15 S16 (MU2), ML 7, AL Lawful, XP 31, NA 1d6 (3d4), TT R

• Call to defend: a lector can call up to 1d6 bystanders to defend the book he reads from (and by extension, him).
  
• Magic: a lector will know 1d3 of:
  • Detect Magic
  • Read Languages
  • Read Magic
  • Sleep

Casteless

Hushers

Hushers are an order of warrior-monks, called by faith to enforce the library rules. They patrol the shelves and galleries of the populated areas of the library and and go on days-long patrols through the far sections, where there's danger of bumping into wandering Marginalia. They take a vow of silence and fight with arrows fletched with the hair of executed criminals, stiffened with book-glue.

AC 6 [13], HD 4 (18 HP), Att 1 × bow (1d6), sharpened ruler (1d6), THAC0 17, MV 120’ (40’), SV D10 W11 P12 B13 S14 (F4), ML 7, AL Lawful, XP 75, NA 1d6 (3d4), TT P 
Conceal: hide in the shadows and attack without warning if rule-breaking occurs.

Binders

Binders have put aside tribal differences to concentrate on the sacred task of repairing damaged books. Cracked spines, torn pages, faded lettering. Time is unkind, never mind the depredations of the library's despised patrons.

AC 6 [13], HD 5 (18 HP), Att 1 × rope dart (1d6 + tangle) book knife (1d4), THAC0 17, MV 120’ (40’), SV D9 W10 P12 B14 S12 (C5), ML 7, AL Lawful, XP 300, NA 1d6 (3d4), TT N/O

Bibliomaniacs

Despite the obvious danger some people will, accidentally or otherwise, read the wrong book and lose their minds. These madmen haunt the library, even wandering alone through the far sections without fear. Hushers will sometimes kill them out of pity.

AC 7 [12], HD 8+1* (37hp), Att 1 × weapon (1d8 or by weapon), THAC0 14, MV 120’ (40’), SV D8 W9 P10 B10 S12 (F8), ML 12, AL Chaotic, XP 1750, NA 0 (1), TT O 

• Magic: A bibliomanic will be able to use one of the following 3 times daily as a spell-like ability:
  
  • Blight
  • Continual Darkness
  • Curse
  • Detect Magic
  • Locate Object
  • Sticks to Snakes

The why of temples

Temples feature in a lot of adventures, but it's often the temple of mumble which was built by the priests of mumblecough to serve the function of hey look over there.

Here's a set of tables that can randomly generate a temple, including its background, physical features, reasons a party of adventurers might be interested in it and reasons why no-one has looted it before them.

This temple is set:

1. On a hill
2. In a valley
3. Overlooking a bay
4. In a mountain pass
5. In a cave
6. On an island

It's a:

1. Single-room chapel
2. Small church with priest quarters
3. Small chapel complex with priest and guest quarters
4. Multi-building grounds with workshops and a staff
5. Temple complex with cloisters, schools and dedicated farms
6. Holy city with a permanent population of citizens and businesses

It was built to:

1. House the bones of a saint
2. Provide accommodation for pilgrims
3. Seal an evil portal/hostile entity
4. Prepare for the return of a living god
5. Act as a base for a religious crusade
6. Train clerics and war priests

Its distinctive feature was:

1. A sacrificial altar
2. A library and scriptorium
3. A treasure vault
4. An armoury
5. Extensive catacombs
6. A reliquary housing an ancient artefact

Its distinctive architecture is:

1. A bell tower 
2. A cloister
3. A necropolis
4. Statues
5. Stained glass windows
6. A labyrinth mosaic

Its state is:

1. Abandoned and empty
2. Used as a headquarters by bandits
3. Used as a den by wild animals
4. Inhabited by monsters
5. Operational but barred to outsiders
6. Re-occupied by a cult or opposing religion

Its walls are:

1. Overgrown and half-buried
2. In ruins
3. Pristine
4. Soot-stained
5. Rebuilt
6. Carved with ominous bas-reliefs

An unexpected threat here is:

1. Angry spirits
2. Wandering undead
3. Animated statues
4. Cursed objects
5. Weakened floor/roof supports
6. Disease

I want to run D20 but all I have are a couple of D6s

We've all been there. It's Christmas and you're gathered at Auntie Doreen's place where your siblings and cousins want you to run one of your 'Dumbledores and Dragons' games for the kids to keep them occupied. You didn't bring your gaming dice and Doreen is on dial-up because wifi causes autism and fibre is a plot by animal rights activists to get their propaganda into people's homes. All you've got to work with are a couple of D6s from an old copy of Monopoly that has POO BUM scrawled across the board in crayon. You can do this.

You can use D6s for a fair simulation of other dice. The methods are neither elegant nor straightforward, but they do what they need to do. In the list of operations below I'm going to call the first die DA and the second DB.

D4

The easiest of them all: just chuck DA and re-roll if you get a result higher than 4. You'll probably have to roll three times for every two results you need, but there's no maths involved.

D8

Roll both dice. DA is a D4. If DB shows an odd side, add 4 to DA's number to get your D8 result.

D10

Roll both dice. This time you're rolling DA as a D5 (re-roll on a 6 result). DB is even/odd again. If it shows an odd side, add 5 to DA's number for your D10 result.

D12

Do not roll both dice and add them together. The first issue is that it's impossible to get a 1 result that way. The second is that rolling two dice and adding them gives you a weak bell-shaped probability curve instead of the flat result you want. The odds of rolling a 6 this way are 5/36 (14%) but the odds of rolling a 12 are 1/36 (0.28%).

Instead, roll DA as a D6 and DB as an odd/even to determine if you add 6 or 0 to DA.

D20

Now it's getting kind of awkward. Roll DA as a D5. Roll DB as a D4. You want a result of 0 to 3. For simplicity's sake I like to treat 6 as a 0, take 1 to 3 as rolled and re-roll on a 4 or 5. Add DB x 5 to DA to get a D20 result.

D100

Use the D10 method twice, once for the tens and again for the ones. Subtract 1 from each result. This will give you final result of 00 - 99. You can treat 00 as 100. If you leave out the subtractions, the lowest result you can roll is 11.

Doreen won't mind you using her toby mug collection as giant figurines, will she?

Void adventure

This is a half-baked idea for a zero-prep procedurally generated adventure, but I think it might have some legs to it.

First, the characters successfully navigate a suspiciously short dungeon belonging to a wizard, eventually finding themselves in his library. The treasure is inches away. Then the door and windows slam shut, there's a light show and a dizzying sense of transition. If the characters pry open the doors or window covers, they find themselves looking out into true nothingness - the void. The room was a trap, and it caught them. They've been dumped out of the world entirely.

Presumably the wizard will eventually call the room back, if only to reset the trap. But there's a dead and mummified adventurer here, which suggests that it could be a good long time. They need to rescue themselves, not wait.

The dead adventurer had an escape plan, which he laid out in a journal he had with him. The room could be shifted back into the world by tracing the path of a specific rune on foot and chanting a magical phrase to undo the trap magic. The biggest problem was that a single room isn't large enough to trace the rune.  It needs to be many squares long. However, it was possible to call additional rooms into the void, from structures similar to this room in concept (IE. dungeons). Then the issue would be digging through walls for access, defeating whatever threats came across with the architecture and building a walkable path through them.

The final journal entry states that a terrible void storm had begun and he was returning to the library for the little protection the bookshelves offered. Whatever rooms he managed to add are gone. If the PCs want to follow his plan, they'll need to start from scratch.

Obviously the characters have specific wants in the rooms they summon: food, building tools and supplies, construction that allows them to create openings where they need them. They'd also prefer those rooms to be unoccupied. Each additional criterion adds 1d3 to the difficulty of the magic roll for the summoning. If I was running I'd keep the players in the dark over whether they pass or fail until the room arrives, and remove one of the criteria for every point they fail by. They get a room regardless, but maybe not the one they hoped for.

I like the idea of using the random dungeon generator from Donjon. Hit random each time to get a different dungeon style, but set Details to basic to get a list of monsters and traps. Roll a die to pick which room they get. If the encounter die hits while they're in that room, it's something from the wandering monsters list, arriving some time after the room they occupied.

The characters have to work fast, because another possibility on the encounter die is a void storm. Storms last 1d6 turns, and while they're in progress, areas of the map simply pop out of existence. Erased by the void. Generating those randomly seem like too much effort, so I'd get the players to map out the dungeon they're constructing and drop d4s on their map to determine where the lacunae occur and how many squares in diameter they are. (D4s are indisputably the most evil of dice. Bastard pointy things.)

Send in the clowns

The face of a killer?

A clown bestiary with B/X stats.

People have been talking for years about scary clowns. I always thought it was mostly in fun, but my little nephew is serious about it. I had to change my in-game skin so we could play Minecraft together, because I was dressed as a clown and he hated it.

Players wouldn't be scared though, would they? Not big tough players. I bet they could take on a whole gang of clowns and come out smiling...

Hobo

Dressed in rags or ill-fitting clothes, Hobos are tasked with gathering victims to feed the nest's Foolmother and her Clowngrubs. They're especially attracted to young children, who can be taken in by a painted smile and a bladder on a stick. Many villages have known the pain of hearing their children cry in fear and seeing a Hobo sprinting away on oversized shoes with a handful of kids stuffed into his hula-hoop trousers.

AC 7 [12], HD 4 (14hp), Att 1 × rubber chicken (1d4), squeaky hammer (1d6), claws (1d6), THAC0 16, MV 80’ (40’), SV D10 W11 P12 B13 S14 (F4), ML 8, AL Chaotic, XP 125, NA 1d4 (2d4), TT S

Specials: Hobos can regurgitate swallowed human intestines to twist into balloon animals, swollen with noxious gas. They burst after 1d4 rounds or if interacted with. The gas irritates the membranes, causing coughing and watering eyes. Save vs poison or -2 to attack rolls until the fight's end.

Pierot

The white-faced Pierot wears motley, a conical hat and a mournful expression.  Don't be fooled, this clown has no mercy. Its skin is coated with slimy white mucus.  The Pierot's chief tactic is pretending to be busy with some task and paying no attention to anyone who might be nearby - then sneaking up and smearing them with its slime as soon as they're distracted.

AC 8 [11], HD 3 (11hp), Att 1 × bucket of whitewash (1d4), claws (1d6), THAC0 17, MV 80’ (40’), SV D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (F3), ML 8, AL Chaotic, XP 75, NA 1d2 (1d6), TT R

Specials: Pierot slime absorbs into demihuman skin and paralyses the will, leaving the victim a dazed but willing slave to the Pierot's gestured commands. Save vs poison to resist.

Little dog

Pierots are often accompanied by little dogs, which function as their protectors. They're not actually canines, they have a vestigial third pair of insectoid limbs that fold flat against the body.  Agile, and vicious, the dog can dislocate its jaw at will to open its mouth wider than its head. It has multiple rows of jagged, broken teeth. It goes for the soft parts, and then for the throat.

AC 7 [12], HD 2 (7hp), Att 1 × bite (1d6), THAC0 18, MV 120’ (40’), SV D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (F1), ML 8, AL Chaotic, XP 20, NA 1d3 (2d4), TT None

Rodeo

The clown nest's soldier caste, Rodeo clowns have nothing subtle or sneaky about them. They operate on instinct, which tells them to attack anyone not part of the nest. They have sticky sweat that binds a protective layer of bullpen dust to their skin. They're also armoured with oversized hats and bandanas. Rodeo clowns can be found defending approaches to the main nest.

AC 6 [13], HD 5 (18hp), Att 1 × headbutt (1d6), claws (1d6), THAC0 15, MV 80’ (40’), SV D10 W11 P12 B13 S14 (F5), ML 10, AL Chaotic, XP 300, NA 1d4 (1d2), TT Q

Specials: Spits caustic chaw (2d4). 2 x daily, 15' range, save vs breath for half damage.

Foolmother

Source of the filthy clown breed, the Foolmother is a towering blob of flesh in the centre of the nest. She appears bloated and immobile, but most of that quivering mass is actually an egg sac she's embedded in. Give her reason and she'll tear free and leap at you, all sleek black biomechanical limbs topped with a bulbous head and painted smile.

AC 1 [18], HD 8 (36hp), Att 1 × bite (3d8) or claws (2d6), THAC0 12, MV 180’ (60’), SV D8 W9 P10 B10 S12 (F8), ML 9, AL Chaotic, XP 650, NA 0 (1), TT H 

Clowngrubs

The clown's immature stage. Writhing slimy grubs the length of your forearm, with sharp mandibles. They hunt by smell and when one tastes flesh it emits a pheromone that calls its fellows to join the feast.

AC 7 [12], HD 1 (4hp), Att 1 × bite (1d3), THAC0 19, MV 90’ (30’), SV D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (F1), ML 6, AL Chaotic, XP 10, NA 0 (0d6), TT None
 

Mime

Every predator has a predator of its own. The clown's predator is the mime. These beasts exist partly in this world and partly in another. They're often hindered by obstacles that exist only on the other side of the divide and are invisible to creatures native to our plane. That weakness is a strength as well, though. The mime can step sideways past barriers that exist only on our side, appearing inside city walls and locked rooms.

Clowns are their natural prey, but they're hostile to any living thing they encounter. The unlucky or unwary die in the grip of claws that can't even be seen.

AC 8 [11], HD 6 (21hp), Att 1 × invisible sword (1d6), THAC0 14, MV 80’ (40’), SV D10 W11 P12 B13 S14 (F6), ML 10, AL Chaotic, XP 500, NA 1d3, TT R

Specials: Immune to non-magical weapons.

Wizard Squad AP and an adventure

Recently I got a chance to playtest Wizard Squad with my usual group and give them a chance to break my game. The lesson for me in this is 'be careful what you wish for'.  The scenario we played was The Doom that came to Springhill.  Click the name there to download a copy. 

Character creation

The usual suspects were present: Tim, Theo, James 1 and Mila.

Character creation was relatively straightforward, but I had difficulty explaining the magic system concepts: your techniques and forms describe the magic your wizard knows, you can custom-build any spell that draws on those practices, each morning you choose the spells that will be available to you to cast for that day. Effectively it's Vancian magic, but it eliminates pre-written level-based spell lists. The players seemed to like that idea.

Tim rolled up Smith Johns, a relatively hardy wizard with magic techniques in Harming/Diminishing and Person. His specialty was Bureaucracy and his advantage was Reputation. We decided that he was quite a legalistic magic user who had successfully taken a number of minor nobles to court.

Theo created Desmond Aster, Des to his friends. His techniques were Summon, Transform, Spirit and Beast. He immediately created a spell to turn people into sheep. He also asked if it was possible to interpret spirits as distilled spirits and create a spell of summon whiskey. We agreed that it was only logical. His specialty was languages and his advantage Official Contacts, so he came from a diplomatic background.

James 1 made The Great Kazaam. His techniques were Heal/Enhance and Person. Unfortunately he rolled the lowest possible HP, so he wouldn't be doing much healing. His advantage was a spirit companion named Fred, who no-one else could see or hear. They just thought The Great Kazaam was kind of weird, but knew things.

Mila rolled up Me Reana, a sorceress with magic for Move, Element, Person, Beast. She immediately created a spell to give flight to flightless animals, a second one to suck spirits into jars to capture them and another she called Earthbending. Her specialty was investigation and her advantage was a minor magical item. After some negotiation we agreed that she had a bag of holding, but the opening was too small for anything larger than her fist.

Des then asked me if it was possible to create a spell to transform spirits into whiskey so they could be sucked into Me's bottles and stored as a refreshing drink in her pouch of holding. I reluctantly admitted that the rules could be interpreted to allow it, but I planned this as a serious game and meant to veto any magic that seemed too ridiculous. Everyone agreed, knowing full well that my games turn ridiculous no matter what my intentions are.

The squad was dispatched to the tiny isolated village of Springhill, where children were vanishing and monsters have been seen in the woods.

The game

The party arrived in Springhill where the mayor’s man failed to meet them as arranged. They headed for the pub, where they learned that talk about monsters abducting or eating children made the innkeeper nervous and he clammed up. At least they got their drinks for free.

They found the mayor, who was riding back into town from negotiating with a mercenary company encamped by the main road. There’s nothing for miles around, so the concern is that the company is here to sack the town. The mayor gave them details about the missing children and their families and the squad went off to investigate.

Talking to the families they learned that all three of the vanished children spent their free time around a swimming hole upriver, and also that a season earlier there had been a late-night display of weird lights over the hill that gave the town its name. They checked out the swimming hole and saw nothing unusual until Me earth-bent the river bed to rise and show itself above the water line. Then they found a number of fish with pig-like features and river weed that seemed to be budding pig fetuses instead of seed pods. The squad theorised that the disappeared children had become the monsters seen in the woods, and it was something in the water that changed them.

Smith issued the river a ticket for concealing evidence, and a receipt for the items they seized for investigation. The other sorcerers began to understand why a successful wizard like him got sent on an investigation at the arse-end of the kingdom.

They travelled upriver, looking for the hillside spring that was its source. All of them struggled inside the cave mouth against the water’s flow, but Smith lost his grip and got swept nearly a mile downriver before he could leave the water. He issued it a ticket for impeding an officer of the law in his duties. The others pushed on, but soon found the way impassable. Kazaam had the idea of letting Des change him into spirit form so he could continue through the spring. [Ordinarily I would have said no to this because Des didn't have that spell on his prepared list, but the game had a fairly strict time limit and I felt like we needed to move things along.] Exploring in this form, he soon found himself halted by a barrier of invisible force. He called the others up and with Des’ help he had the power to force his way through. That weakened the barrier enough for Des to follow. Me earth-bent an alcove next to the force wall where someone could work out of the water flow, and went after them.

Smith arrived, recognised Me’s alcove for what it was and pushed on. The barrier could only offer token resistance at this point. He scrawled a hasty ticket and dropped it as he hurried past.

Moving ahead of the squad, Kazaam entered a large dry room with unmistakable old-kingdom construction. He spotted lights and raised voices in the distance. Des used a spell to give himself the appearance of a spirit - invisibility - and joined him. They found the room was a grid of stone vats filled with a milky fluid in which a herd of pigs were growing to maturity with unnatural speed. The voices were a trio of men slaughtering and butchering full-grown pigs.

Kazaam flew close and ordered them to stop. The oldest man waved a hand through his immaterial body and told him that no, he didn’t think they would. He sent one of the younger ones to fetch help. Kazaam sent Fred the spirit to follow him, but he lost track of the man in the darkness and twisting pathway out of the hill.

Des recognised enough of the old-kingdom glyphs on the walls to have a good chance at deactivating the room without destroying it. He went for it, and successfully turned off the controlling device overhead. The vats hardened into milky glass and went inert. The two remaining men tried to make a fight of it, but Des turned them into sheep.

The session ended there, but in the postscript the wizard squad went on to arrest a local farmer and his two sons, along with the mayor and the innkeeper. Deprived of the supplies they needed to cross the northern wasteland and attack a keep from the blind side, the mercenaries threatened to sack the town, but Des offered to fix their provisioning problem by turning the first half dozen men to reach for their weapons into mutton. The three missing children were rounded up and after several months of intensive research, returned to human form by the wizard academy.

Conclusions

Playtests never take place under ideal conditions, have you noticed? In this case we didn’t have our usual rooms at the university, so we played outside in the courtyard. The weather was good for it, but the sun went down and we were reduced to squinting and using our cellphone lights to read character sheets until the overhead lights came on - after we finished. With the venue problem, transport issues and character creation, we didn’t get started until late. It was only intended to be one session, so it had to be a 90-minute game.

I threw out a whole bunch of clues, some useful and some not. I intended to curse the players with an overabundance of evidence and force them to sort through it all. Instead (perhaps because they chose to investigate the spookiest clues first), they bypassed most of the mystery and headed straight for the problem’s source inside the hill.

By running Wizard Squad I learned that:

• Players suffer from the blank page problem and need some prompting to start coming up with their own spells. 
• But once they get into the swing of things you can’t stop them inventing new spells and wanting to try them out immediately.
• Players with a D&D background got the magic system immediately. Other players needed more of an explanation. Is it still a one-page game if you bundle it with an adventure, an extended bestiary and a couple examples of play? 
• The game is unplayable without houseruling, which is pretty much what I expected. 

House rules

These were all developed through play.

• The standard die for magic is a d4. Healing? D4 + level HP. Transforming? D4 + level minutes at base cost. 
• Some effects revert back after the spell wears off, some don't. Rule of common sense applies.
• Some spells require a roll to cast, some are automatic. Once again, rule of common sense.
• Players want to experiment with new spells as they come to mind, even if they're not playable that in-game day. The compromise I came up with is to allow a flashback to the wizard academy, where the character tries the spell out for the first time. The player must make a roll. If they miss the target by three or more, it's an undershoot. Roll a d6 and consult this table:
  
  1 - 3 - spell fails and accidentally ruins another student's experiment.
  4 - 5 - spell fails and the PC looks foolish, under-prepared, or over-confident in front of academy staff.
  6 - spell misfires and there's property damage or injury.
  
  If they exceed the target by three or more, it's an overshoot. Roll a d6 and consult this table:
  
  1 - 3 - spell succeeds and the PC looks organised, confident and in control.
  4 - 5 - spell succeeds and the PC impresses a senior wizard.
  6 - spell succeeds and reveals a hidden truth that solves a question the academy has been struggling with for months.